carrier

[kar-ee-er] /ˈkær i ər/
noun
1.
a person or thing that carries.
2.
an employee of the post office who carries mail.
3.
a person who delivers newspapers, magazines, etc., on a particular route.
4.
Transportation.
  1. an individual or company, as a railroad or steamship line, engaged in transporting passengers or goods for profit.
  2. common carrier.
5.
Insurance. a company that acts or functions as an underwriter or insurer.
6.
a frame, usually of metal, attached to a vehicle for carrying skis, luggage, etc., as on top of an automobile or station wagon; rack.
7.
aircraft carrier.
8.
Immunology. an individual harboring specific pathogenic organisms who, though often immune to the agent harbored, may transmit the disease to others.
9.
Genetics.
  1. an individual possessing an unexpressed, recessive trait.
  2. the bearer of a defective gene.
10.
Also called carrier wave. Radio. the wave whose amplitude, frequency, or phase is to be varied or modulated to transmit a signal.
11.
Machinery. a mechanism by which something is carried or moved.
12.
Chemistry. a catalytic agent that brings about a transfer of an element or group of atoms from one compound to another.
13.
Also called charge carrier. Physics. any of the mobile electrons or holes in a metal or semiconductor that enable it to conduct electrical charge.
14.
Physical Chemistry. a usually inactive substance that acts as a vehicle for an active substance.
15.
carrier pigeon.
16.
Painting. base1 (def 15b).
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English; see carry, -er1
Related forms
intercarrier, noun
noncarrier, noun
supercarrier, noun
Examples from the web for carrier
  • One was about a half mile off the port side of the aircraft carrier and was really loud and shook the whole ship.
  • The capital ship was an aircraft carrier stuck on a flat ocean, and their fighters were navy planes in atmosphere.
  • If you have insurance now, get a certificate of coverage from your current insurance carrier to present to the new carrier.
  • Today's skiers often carry letters in commemoration of the fallen mail carrier.
  • Shooting on an aircraft carrier can be a world of opposites.
  • So being a carrier confers a survival advantage in countries where malaria is endemic.
  • If this is the case, please try to arrange with your letter carrier to place the magazine in a different area.
  • Defenders running full speed, however, face a risk: the ball carrier could sidestep an overly aggressive player.
  • The side of the material that becomes more positive, though, depends on the sign of the charge carrier.
  • She was examined and found to be a carrier of typhoid fever.
British Dictionary definitions for carrier

carrier

/ˈkærɪə/
noun
1.
a person, thing, or organization employed to carry goods, passengers, etc
2.
a mechanism by which something is carried or moved, such as a device for transmitting rotation from the faceplate of a lathe to the workpiece
3.
(pathol) another name for vector (sense 3)
4.
(pathol) a person or animal that, without having any symptoms of a disease, is capable of transmitting it to others
5.
(physics) Also called charge carrier. an electron, ion, or hole that carries the charge in a conductor or semiconductor
6.
short for carrier wave
7.
(chem)
  1. the inert solid on which a dyestuff is adsorbed in forming a lake
  2. a substance, such as kieselguhr or asbestos, used to support a catalyst
  3. an inactive substance containing a radioisotope used in radioactive tracing
  4. an inert gas used to transport the sample through a gas-chromatography column
  5. a catalyst that effects the transfer of an atom or group from one molecule to another
8.
See aircraft carrier
9.
a breed of domestic fancy pigeon having a large walnut-shaped wattle over the beak; a distinct variety of pigeon from the homing or carrier pigeon See also carrier pigeon
10.
a US name for roof rack

Carrier

/ˈkærɪə/
noun
1.
a member of an Athapaskan Native North American people of British Columbia
Word Origin and History for carrier
n.

late 14c., agent noun from carry (v.). Meaning "person or animal that carries and disseminates infection without suffering obvious disease" is from 1899; genetic sense is 1933. As a short form of aircraft carrier it dates from 1917. Carrier pigeon is from 1640s.

carrier in Medicine

carrier car·ri·er (kār'ē-ər)
n.

  1. A person or an animal that shows no symptoms of a disease but harbors the infectious agent of that disease and is capable of transmitting it to others.

  2. A compound capable of transferring a hydrogen atom from one compound to another.

  3. A quantity of naturally occurring element added to a minute amount of pure isotope, especially a radioactive one, to facilitate the chemical handling of the isotope.

  4. An individual that carries, but does not express, a gene for a particular recessive trait, yet when mated with another carrier, can produce offspring that do.

carrier in Science
carrier
  (kār'ē-ər)   

  1. A person, animal, or plant that serves as a host for a pathogen and can transmit it to others, but is immune to it. Mosquitoes are carriers of malaria.

  2. An organism that carries a gene for a trait but does not show the trait itself. Carriers can produce offspring that express the trait by mating with another carrier of the same gene. See more at recessive.


Slang definitions & phrases for carrier

carrier

Related Terms

jeep carrier